Stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown slammed for charging small shareholders to vote at annual meetings

Criticism: The private broking website has been accused of 'disenfranchising its customers' by bringing in a £12 fee for attending or voting at companies'

Hargreaves Lansdown has been criticised for introducing charges for small shareholders who want to vote at annual meetings.

The private broking website has been accused of ‘disenfranchising its customers’ by bringing in a £12 fee for attending or voting at companies’ annual general meetings – a service that used to be free.

Any small shareholder who wants to attend or vote in several AGMs could rack a hefty bill, on top of their annual fees to Hargreaves – which are already higher than rivals’ charges.

They will also be charged for voting in rights issues or other shareholder ballots.

Catherine
Howarth at campaign group Share Action said the charge for attending
AGMs was ‘a barrier to people exercising the fundamental right to hold
accountable the directors of the company asking them questions and the
one annual occasion on which they can’.

She
added: ‘The people who go to AGMs are generally small shareholders who
do a very good job of holding the directors’ feet to the fire over key
issues.

‘The AGM is a really important institution in British corporate life, but it’s in danger.’

Share
Action is planning to submit a petition to founder Sir Peter Hargreaves
to reverse the charges, which will be on its website shareaction.org
today. Charlotte Black at Brewin Dolphin said: ‘We don’t charge, because
we think it’s a shareholder’s right if they want to vote.’ Hargreaves
defended the changes, which were announced in April but only came into
force yesterday.

A
spokesman said: ‘Our fee structure aims to be proportionate and fair,
with only the investors who use particular services being charged for
them.’

Hargreaves
(up 26p to 1245p) was also recently criticised for introducing a £600
death fee, which grieving widows or widowers are forced to pay to access
their spouse’s investments.

Currently
the group’s customers face an annual charge of 0.45 per cent of their
assets – which compares to 0.25 per cent at competitors such as Charles
Stanley.

Any investor wanting to switch their money away faces a £25 exit fee for each fund, compared to a £10 bill from other firms.